Page 988 - Week 03 - Thursday, 28 February 2013
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northern Australia 2030 vision, a coalition party plan to develop northern parts of Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia where there is apparently tremendous potential for economic growth. This policy platform suggested developing key urban zones around Darwin, Cairns, Townsville and Karratha with the aim of boosting populations in those areas through immigration policies, relocation allowances and personal income tax incentives. But the policy also recommended moving substantial numbers of public servants from agencies such as the CSIRO to those areas.
That is the double whammy—sack 20,000 people out of this economy and then relocate thousands of other jobs to other parts of the country. That combination will certainly have an impact on the territory economy. On the other hand, the alternative policy response is to keep on developing this economy with a focus on maintaining employment and creating jobs.
In the time I have remaining I will respond to some of the allegations in Mr Smyth’s contribution. He was particularly critical of an alleged current federal Labor government policy of reducing employment in the commonwealth public service.
Mrs Jones: It’s called the efficiency dividend.
MR BARR: Apparently it is. One would need to check the facts on this, so I went to the state of the service report, which is annual report on the number of employees within the commonwealth public service. Lo and behold, in the period between June 2011 and June 2012 when efficiency dividends had been in operation, total employment in the Australian public service, in fact, rose by 2,328 to 168,580, and 40 per cent of the employment growth occurred within the territory. That is consistent with what has been a trend over the last 15 or so years where a proportion of commonwealth public sector in the ACT as a percentage of total commonwealth public sector employment has, in fact, been increasing from about a third in 1998 to over 40 per cent now.
So what we have seen in a period towards the end of the Howard government and under the Rudd and Gillard governments is that, in fact, more commonwealth public sector jobs, particularly in areas of growing importance in our economy, have been located in the ACT—jobs in areas like the CSIRO, for example. That has been important for this territory’s economy. To see those jobs relocated would be a bad outcome for the ACT
Discussion concluded.
Adjournment
Motion (by Mr Barr) agreed to:
That the Assembly do now adjourn.
The Assembly adjourned at 4.34 pm until Tuesday, 19 March 2013, at 10 am.
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